18 | JUNE 22 • 2023 

OUR COMMUNITY

I

s there anything cuter than 
childhood sweethearts?! 
For Lindsay and Zak Mall, 
their moment began when 
they were in elementary school 
at Hillel Day School.
Then second-grader Lindsay 
Gordon was in the principal’s 
office — “probably in trouble 
for talking in class” — when in 
walked a third-grade boy who 
was after a kippah.
The second-grader, 
anything but shy, immediately 
recognized him and 
announced with delight, “Oh, 
I know you; you’re friends 
with my cousin!” to which 
the unimpressed boy replied 
with typical third-grade boy 
enthusiasm: “Yeah … so 
what?”
Lindsay didn’t give that 
interaction another thought, 
but apparently Zak did. He 
went home and announced 
that he’d met a blond girl in the 
principal’s office and was going 
to marry her one day!
“Maybe I was the first Jewish 

girl he’d met with blond hair?” 
Lindsay laughs now. “Who 
knows!?”
Their lives intersected a lot 
— Zak was a lifeguard at the 
JCC camp where Lindsay was a 
counselor; they grew up only a 
mile apart from each other, but 
it wasn’t until high school that 
they started dating. They both 
remembered their interaction 
in the principal’s office from 
when they were younger. 
Zak’s mother remembered 
what she’d been told, too. 
“Wait, is this the blond girl you 
said you’re going to marry one 
day?”
It sure was — and Zak 
never doubted his third-grade 
prophecy for a minute … 
although Lindsay did!
The two were on and off 
for many years, but Lindsay 
said, “I didn’t think of him as 
a boyfriend … but I wanted 
to be with him, and we spoke 
every day.”
Finally, Zak sat Lindsay 
down and said, “You’re in 

denial, you love me, face it …” 
to which Lindsay responded 
with a line that they both laugh 
about now. 
“I came up with something 
cheesy, something like, ‘If 
going out is up and not going 
out is down, we’d be in the 
stars,’ which maybe doesn’t 
make so much sense, but at the 
time I thought it was all elusive 
and poetic and beautiful!” 
Lindsay said. 
Eventually Zak moved out 
to Arizona for work, and they 

spoke every day for two years 
until Zak finally asked her, 
“Why don’t you just come to 
Arizona?”
Lindsay was 25, the time was 
ripe. She flew out there. “
And 
we’ve been together ever since.” 
Zak’s third-grade prophecy 
was fulfilled when they 
married in the summer of 
2010. They moved back to 
Farmington Hills in 2012 
with their then-6-month-old 
baby, and they’ve lived here 
ever since. Now Zak works 
as a business consultant, and 
Lindsay teaches mommy-baby 
classes. 
The family are members of 
Adat Shalom Synagogue and 
all three of their kids — Lillee, 
11, Emma, 8, and Eli, 3 — are 
current students at Hillel, 
which absolutely delights their 
proud parents. 
“Life definitely comes full 
circle,” reflected Lindsay. “We 
recently had PTA and met with 
some of the same teachers who 
taught us … Although our kids 
are much better students than 
us! None of them have been 
sent to the principal’s office 
for talking in class or to get a 
kippah!” 

This column will appear biweekly. If 

you’d like to share your ‘meet-cute’ 

story, please email burstynwithjoy@

hotmail.com.

Childhood Sweethearts

ROCHEL BURSTYN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

HOW WE MET

The Mall 
family

Lindsay and 
Zak Mall

Zak and 
Lindsay Mall

